How Trump Paid the Military During Government Shutdown: An Accounting Explainer

Government Shutdown Impact

• ⚠️ A government shutdown is compared to a power outage, with problems escalating the longer it lasts.
• 📌 The current shutdown has reached 30 days, impacting approximately 700,000 federal employees who are working without pay, and another 700,000 furloughed employees.
• 📈 The shutdown's effects are expanding to 42 million Americans who rely on government assistance, with SNAP benefits set to expire.

Military Pay Solution

• 💰 An 11th-hour workaround was implemented by the Trump administration to ensure over a million military members received their paychecks.
• 🏦 This involved raiding three different funds through accounting acrobatics to cover military salaries.

Legal and Political Justifications

• ⚖️ The White House's position is that the president has the authority to fund the military due to past practice dating back to George Washington, allowing for emergency spending without congressional appropriation.
• 🚫 Conversely, SNAP benefits are argued to be outside the commander-in-chief's military powers, thus limiting the president's ability to act without congressional approval.
• 🎯 Donald Trump views funding the military as a major political issue, believing that keeping troops paid while other constituencies suffer increases pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown.

Legal Challenges to SNAP Funding

• 🏛️ Two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its refusal to fund food stamps.
• ❓ A judge questioned the administration's stance, noting that Congress had allocated emergency funds for SNAP, making it difficult to understand why it wasn't being used.
• 🚨 The White House's argument is that emergencies are typically for natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes, not for funding SNAP benefits.